Thermo-electric pile.



No. 650,062. Patented May 22, I900. L. GOTTSCHO.

THERMO-ELECTRIC PILE.

(Application filed Dec. 19, 1899.)

(No Model.)

NITE j'rn'rss LUCIAN cor'rsono, on CHARLOTTENBURG, GERMANY.

THERMO-ELECTRIC FILE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 650,062,-dated May 22,1900.

I Application filed December 19, 1899. Serial No. 740,929 (No modelr)'Berlin, Empire of'Germany, have invented new and useful Improvements inThermo-' Electric Piles, of which the following is a de-- scription. 1

The present invention relates to improvements in thermo-electrie piles;and one of its principal objects is to prevent as far as possible heatfrom being given off from the warm joints or points of j unctu re of themetals form-' ingthe'pile. In order to attain this object anintermediate conductor is inserted between the warm and cold joints, andthe cross-section of the said conductor is reduced as far as possible,having due regard to the exterior current strength. Furthermore,according to the presentinvent-ion a heatretaining mass or partition isprovided which inclosesthewarm joints only and separates them from theex"- teriorspace, in which the coldjoints are ar-- ranged.

v I) b b (which may be of similar metals) are arranged outside the roomor chamber R and kept at a lower temperature.

The hot joints a a are connected, by means of intermediate conductors c,with the corresponding cold parts I) b. The bismuth plate of the jointsand the antimony plate of a? are the poles of the-battery, formed sothat the antimony plate of a is connected to the antimony of the jointI) and that of a to that of b &c.', by means of metallic conductors,which may, if desired, be of wire. Further connections 0 are arrangedfrom the bismuth of joint I) to that of joint a and from the-bis-. muthof joint b tothat of a &c. Thus a thermo-electric pile is attained whichis distinctly different from those hitherto known and in use. The greatloss of heat hitherto noticeable and whichwas caused by the transmissionof heat by the metal connecting the joints is'very considerablydiminished in that the cross-section q of theintermediate con ductor c,which isin thefpresent case determined exclusively by the amount ofcurrent necessary in the exterior circuit, 'isvery con-' siderablyreduced. Since the heated'joints a to a are-arranged ina heated chamberR,

which is practically thermally insulated as far as the exterior isconcerned, the loss of heat by transmission and radiation is practicallyobviated. In addition to these facts the ap aratus has constructionaladvantages.

Since he arrangement of the warm-joints-ct a is entirely independentof'the cold joints,

these points being connected by compare-.-

tively-thin wires or the like, the size of the contacting surfaces atthe joints is in no way limited, and thus'other materials than those"hitherto employed for the outer members of the thermoelectric fieldofvtension' may be.

used, such materials being of an extremelypoints of contact m-ay,undercircumstances,

obviate'the necessity of special cooling-surfaces. Thus the cold jointmay be of such dimensions that the heating of the same, per superficialarea, would-be quite.insignificant.- This heating, asis well known,results fromthe so-oalled Peltier efiect from the f Joules heatgenerated and from the heat transmitted directly from the hot joints,the whole, heat 'being' distributed over the entire surface.. The mainidea and object of the device form- 5 ing the present inventionis toutilize theh'eat as far as possible in an undisturbed condition orstatically, and thus to considerably increase the efiect attained by theconversionof lieatinto electricity. 1

I claim as my invention- In a thermoelectric .pile, the combinationof alieat-retainingdiaphragm or wall to in LUOIAN GOTTSUHO.

Witnesses:

HENRY HASPER, I

WOLD MAR HAUPT.

l closeithe heated joints only and a series of conductors ofrelatively-small cross-section to

